


Solitude

by aj_linguistik



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst despite Eugeo surviving what i know, But it's gonna take a hot minute, Eugeo Doesn't Die, M/M, The ship IS present I swear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-31 11:18:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20114248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: Death definitely doesn't involve you waking up and walking away like nothing happened. So, Eugeo's pretty certain he's not dead. But there's no one else here. Where did everyone go? Where did Kirito go?What in the world happened between when he was dying and when he opened his eyes again?





	1. Life After Death

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oakentide](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakentide/gifts).

> A/N: So, this was a little playful plot-building me and Oakentide did. (Thus, why he's being credited! Thank you friend!) I couldn't keep my paws off of it.

Darkness permeates everything. It winds its way into your mind and blocks out all of the light. The darkness comes before you completely vanish. As does the silence. I think, in that moment, when everything vanished from before my eyes and all of my senses dulled, I finally felt fear set in. Were my eyes widening as I realized what was going on? There was no way to know now. Everything was shrouded in dark silence.

_I’m dying._

The fear replaced my dazed words. I couldn’t keep talking about…what was I saying, again? What was I telling him? I wonder if he can hear me at all. Am I gone just yet? This is terrifying. I don’t want him to go. I don’t want to go where he’s not.

“Kirito…where are you…?”

He’s gone.

No.

_I’m_ gone.

Encapsulated in darkness, all I can do is think. When will that cease, I wonder? I can’t see him any longer. I can’t feel him. Or hear him. Panic sets in. I’d discouraged him from healing me, and for what? I didn’t want to go. After all we’d just been through, I didn’t want to go. But the darkness crept in, slowly, slowly, until it consumed me. Only a short moment before I, too, am the nothingness I feel trapped in.

_Goodbye…my best friend._

_ My hero…_

My senses all became sharper and active at once. I let out a scream, mostly from the shock of feeling absolutely nothing to suddenly being aware and a part of the environment again. I can feel the cold floor beneath me and the warm air being drawn into my lungs. Opening my eyes, I glance around the room. Everything looks broken, perhaps a result of the fight between Kirito and the Administrator. I try to sit up. My head feels a bit groggy.

“K-Kirito…how did you…?” I stammered.

Silence.

Frowning, I look around the room. I’m the only person present. I wait a few minutes before trying to pick myself up. Even my sword isn’t present. I slowly make my way over to the little platform in the floor. It’s barely visible, but there’s just enough of a faint line where it exists that I can pick it out and wait for it to lower me down to the ninety-ninth floor. I look around once more. This room, too, is empty.

“Where…did everyone go?”

The terrifying thought that they’d all died crossed my mind. Before I could stop myself, I found myself flying down the stairs and through the various rooms and floors of the cathedral. I didn’t stop to think about how much energy I had left after the fight—I just tore through the building, frantically calling out for someone to answer me. But no matter where I looked or how loud I screamed, no one answered me.

I finally found myself outside. The sky’s grey. It’s chilly—not quite the temperature of the sixth month that I’m so familiar with. What was with this sudden cold front? I rubbed my arms and glanced around. My heart skipped a beat.

“H-Hello?”

Centoria was dead.

The streets were empty. For it still being light enough outside to see, it was eerie. There were no animals bustling in the streets with people. There weren’t even any people to begin with. I numbly walked around, scanning the area for life. A few birds flew overhead. It was relieving to see at least something moving.

My soles clacked against the cobblestone streets, echoing off of that dead silence. I approached the exterior of the Swordcraft Academy. Certainly, someone would be in there. I opened the door and let myself in.

“Hello? Ms. Azurica?”

The building was quiet. No students were ambling in the halls. No instructors were in classrooms or at posts. I couldn’t hear the sound of practice as wooden blades slammed against each other. There were no whispers from girls, gossiping about their upperclassmen. This place, too, was empty. I drew in a breath, trying not to panic.

But that panic had already taken ahold of me. I ran back to the dormitory and ran to where my room had been. I tugged at the doors. They didn’t want to open. I pulled as hard as I could until they finally swung open. I didn’t even care that they slammed into the wall, damaging their life just a bit. I searched the room with my eyes. No one. I ran into Kirito’s bedroom and found myself frantically ripping the sheets off of his empty bed.

“KIRITO! KIRITO, WHERE ARE YOU?”

I didn’t feel like myself as I tore that dorm to pieces. I ripped sheets, overturned furniture, and broke dishes. I made a mess of everything, as if causing this sort of disorder would make someone appear to scold me. Perhaps it was the dead silence that drove me to do it. As I smashed teacups on the floor, I begged for that sound to turn into Kirito’s voice, asking me what in the world was the matter.

At some point, I just stopped. I was in Kirito’s room again, staring down at the sheets I’d made a mess of. I dropped down onto the bed and drew the fabric to my body, as if these scraps of cloth would somehow bring me closer to my best friend. Fatigue set in at the same time as the desperate sobs finally escaped from my throat.

All I knew was that everyone in Centoria and the Central Cathedral was gone. I didn’t have the emotional energy to think it through. It was all I could do at the moment—cry. I sobbed into ripped bedsheets and wondered where in the world Kirito and Alice had gone. Truthfully, I feared for the worst.

“Kirito…Kirito…I need help…”  
He wasn’t here to answer my questions or boldly move forward, unintentionally spurning me onwards. It was up to me to make my own decisions here and now. If I learned why this city was devoid of people, I’d be able to figure out what happened to my friends. Logically, that was the only option I had.

I dragged myself into the cafeteria and rummaged for food. The space was shockingly devoid of stuff that didn’t keep for a while, but I didn’t complain. I found things that still had enough life and opted to eat the food items that were closest to their expiration. It didn’t taste too pleasant. Things were oddly stale.

“What happened…?” I mumbled.

Shaking my head, I just finished up my stolen meal and headed back to the dorm. I ended up taking sheets out of a different room since I’d destroyed the ones from our room. I made up Kirito’s bed with them, fluffed up a pillow, and then crawled into the bed. I told myself I’d get some rest and take tomorrow to piece together what happened. If nothing else, perhaps I’d sleep and wake up to find it was all a dream.

So, I let my eyes slip closed. Maybe I was really dead. I’d died, and this is what death was like. Endless, lonesome wandering through the world you knew. It seemed like such a cruel punishment just for reaching the end of one’s life. But my senses told me that wasn’t the case. I’d been healed, but something unusual was going on. Tomorrow, I’d search for answers.

“I’ll find you again…Kirito.”

And I wouldn’t stop trying until I did.


	2. Silent City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The struggle with a chapter like this is that Eugeo is the only interlocutor here. He's got no one to talk to. This is a fun challenge for creativity. Hmmm!

Sunlight forced my eyes open. I stared at the far wall numbly, trying to orient myself. I was in Kirito’s old dorm bedroom. There was a stale scent to the air, as if no one had occupied this room for years. Dust particles danced in the rays of sunlight seeping into the room. I clutched the fabric of the sheets. My mind longed to hear Kirito’s voice, disproving yesterday’s humanless horrors.

No voice came.

I forced myself to sit up. My eyes wandered over to the door. Still, I longed to hear his voice and see him pop his head into the doorway, grinning at me like an idiot. I stared for so long that my eyes felt like they might fall out of their sockets. He wasn’t going to appear. My heart throbbed in my chest painfully. A shadow passed over the door.

“Kirito?”

Suddenly, the thought of even just a stranger passing by thrust me from the bed. I didn’t bother to put my clothes back on. I tore out of the room and searched the area. There was no sign of the source of the shadow. I stumbled out into the main living area and noticed a few dark clouds coming into view.

“Kirito…where are you…say something,” I said.

The empty room refused to respond.

“Eat something. Then investigate,” I told myself.

I rummaged through the room and pulled out some food that looked like it had enough Life left in it. I made sure to open its Stacia windows and check beforehand, just in case it was too old to consider. Oddly, the food was quite fresh. No one had been here to bake things like bread or pie, but the baked goods had so much Life to them that they were practically fresh out of the oven.

It was peculiar, to say in the least. I counted it a blessing from Stacia and ate my fill. I cleaned myself up, slipped my clothing back on, and then headed out of the dormitory. This time, I wasn’t panicked. I had time to look around and check for clues. I slipped into the first house I came across. Belatedly, I recalled that this was technically breaking and entering. I paused and glanced behind myself.

Breaking the Seal of the Right Eye meant that I wouldn’t have the same hesitations as before. I could break all kinds of rules, as had been evidenced by my will to kill Deusolbert Synthesis Seven back in the cathedral. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if breaking the Taboo Index would bring me any kind of harm. But there was no one here to monitor me. The place was dead.

“Worried about rules and there’s no one here to enforce them….” I muttered. “Kirito might laugh at me for that.”

I sighed and resumed entering the house. Everything appeared neat and orderly. No upset seemed to have made the family who’d lived here get up and leave. Chairs and tables were left where they belonged, no glass was broken, and surfaces looked relatively clean. I traveled upstairs. Beds were made. Lounges looked prim and proper. Studies didn’t even have books or parchment strewn across the desks.

What would have made people leave without taking their possessions? Did nobles just not care about that sort of thing? No one seemed to have left in a hurry. This was all quite puzzling to me. I shook my head and headed back outside. With not even a single note to explain where they’d gone, this house was useless to me.

The next few houses presented me with a similar issue. No one had left a trace of what happened here. Centoria was simply empty. It was empty, in perfect condition, and none of the food was spoiled. I had half a mind to think that the world had all but stopped, but Solus still passed overhead and changed positions as the day drew on. And the night before, Lunaria had risen and set in the sky for a period of time while I slept in Kirito’s bed, shutting out the terror.

“Is it a sacred art doing this?” I mumbled.

Nothing that could make a bunch of people disappear all at once popped into my head. There was always the option that everyone had been converted into weapons—but I didn’t want to entertain that possibility. Hadn’t Kirito ended the battle with Administrator, after all? Who else might want to do such a horrible thing?

There had to be an answer somewhere. A lack of one didn’t make sense. I turned on my heel and headed off to the Swordcraft Academy’s library. If a sacred art was doing this, there was a way to undo it. I just had to find both the answer to the question burning in my brain in order to conjure up a solution. As I entered the space, I took a deep breath. It was going to take ages to get through all of these books. But I had no other options.

How long did I sit there, poring over books? I turned page after page after page, searching desperately for some kind of hidden answer. When I felt hungry, I got up and made more food from the curiously fresh options present in the kitchen. I lit a candle and continued to read well into the night. At some point, I slumped over against a bookshelf and fell asleep. I woke up the next day feeling unpleasant aches from sleeping in such a weird spot, but I dove back into the books without a word.

I separated the books into ones that I’d read through and ones that I hadn’t. Somewhere along the line I stopped re-shelving the ones I’d read, opting to lazily drop them on the floor wherever I pleased. I became so absorbed with finding an answer that I lost track of how long I was sitting in the library, yanking books off of shelves and poring through them, only stopping for water and food. I barely registered falling asleep and waking up.

The pages of the final book stared up at me, disappointingly void of any answers, a week or so later. I hadn’t kept count. I let the book fall of my hands and land on the floor, pages crinkling up from landing open-faced by my leg. My eyes felt heavy. I pressed my hands to them. In all of this time, I’d been stowed away in the library and no one had disturbed me.

Centoria truly was vacant, wasn’t it?

I dragged my tired body back out of the library and stepped outside for the first time in days. Light burned my eyes. I held up a hand and squinted out into the garden area. I numbly walked through the gate, scanning the area. A little plot of zephilias grew right where Kirito had left them. I knelt down beside the flowers and caressed one.

“I don’t suppose you know what happened,” I breathed.

Flowers couldn’t speak, though. I needed to find other humans. If they weren’t in Centoria, then I’d have to pack up and head to Zakkaria. Hopefully, someone there might be able to help me find some answers. I plucked two of the flowers and headed back inside. I snatched up a bag, stuffed it with some clothing and food supplies, and then grabbed a book. I placed one zephilia inside of the pages and slipped the book into the bag. The other, I pinned over my heart.

I took one last glance around as I headed for the gate entrance of Centoria. I placed one hand on the gate and stared back over my shoulder at the proud capital. Its silence still unnerved me. My heart felt heavy as I stepped across the border of the city onto the open road, but there was nothing left for me here. I touched my fingers to the flower on my chest and frowned.

“Kirito, I promise…I promise I’ll find you,” I said. “Wherever you went. Wherever everyone went. I won’t stop.”

I’d repeated those words so many times in the past week, but I wasn’t sick of saying them. I lifted my head and stared at the winding road in front of me. Kirito might not be by my side now, yet I knew, somehow, that at the end of this journey he would be. The thought made me smile. I took the next step forward, holding my head high as I did.

Onward to Zakkaria.


	3. A Good Night's Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This really is like a big fun challange. One person. Get a chapter out of that. Do it. You can. You MUST. Aaaaaaaaah!

My feet ached as I trudged down the road. I’d been walking for days, choosing to take short rests in places that seemed safe. Without Kirito this time, there wasn’t a system where we could switch off to protect the other from wild animals. Around dusk, I reached a small inn that had been abandoned the last time I’d been through here. Kirito and I had cleared a plot of trees that time; my spirits lifted as I dashed over to the door, forgetting my fatigue, to greet the family who’d returned there.

I knocked on the front door. There wasn’t a light out front yet, but Solus was still up in the sky. I patiently waited, hoping to see faces from a while ago smiling at me. I wondered to myself if they remembered me. When no one answered, I frowned and knocked again. My heart shuddered in my chest.

“Here, too?” I breathed.

Worry filled my stomach. I pressed on the door, apologizing out loud if someone, indeed, was inside of the inn. But there was not a sound coming from inside. I glanced around. It reminded me of when I was last here, exploring this place behind Kirito as a cautious intruder. This time, however, the place didn’t _feel_ abandoned. Everything was left in place, as if people had vanished from amidst their jobs.

I felt troubled. How far did this mass disappearance reach? I was rather distanced from Centoria now. I clutched my head and tried to think. What if it had reached Zakkaria? A small part of me wanted to skip resting for the night and hurry on to Zakkaria. I wanted to confirm whether or not I was going mad by finding one person left in the world who knew what was going on.

But fatigue drew my attention to the kitchen. I sighed and wandered into it. I set up a means of cooking up a quick meal, using supplies once again strangely fresh to make a nice, hot meal for once. Sorrow tugged at my heart. Hadn’t we made a quick, simple soup when we were last here? I smiled at the memory as I spooned the soup into a bowl.

“Kirito, you’re right,” I said, laughing. “You were always terrible at this.”

Not that I was any better, but I think we both agreed I could manage a better-tasting meal than he could. I stirred the soup as I waited for it to cool and rested my head in my free hand. This might still taste better if Kirito were here with me, instead of vanished.

I thought about that. Kirito wouldn’t just abandon me. I couldn’t think of a single, plausible reason why Kirito would abandon me here. I had perfect faith that something had happened to separate us after the fight with Administrator. Somehow, Kirito and I had been forced apart. I feared that he, too, had been swept away in this massive disappearance, but a small, hopeful part of my soul wanted to believe that he was out there looking for me, just as I searched for him.

Smiling, I scooped up some of the soup and blew on it to cool it off. I slipped it into my mouth and let out a moan. It had been days since I’d eaten anything warm. I quickly downed the soup, eventually dropping my spoon to pick the bowl up and slurp it down. There was no one here to tell me that was impolite. Satisfied, I leaned back in the chair and rested one hand on my belly.

I opted for a quick bath, since I had the materials. I told myself not to take too long, but then I realized the length of my bath only mattered if I cared about pruned fingers. I heated up the water, mixed in some soaps, and then sank into the warm water with a sigh. My aching body welcomed the warmth on my overworked muscles. As fit as I was, hiking for days still took a toll on the body.

As I scrubbed off the dirt, grime, and sweat from my journey, I once again found myself wondering how everything was ready for me to use. There shouldn’t have been soaps available—shouldn’t things have gone bad by now? Or at least with longer-lasting items like bars of soap, shouldn’t they have been unused? It was puzzling to me. Nothing looked or felt used. Nothing appeared to have aged.

It was like the world was preset for me the moment I stepped into an area. “Ah, Eugeo’s here now! Provide some bread!” or something like that. Perhaps the gods were playing some sort of trick on me. I didn’t fancy it, if they were. This sort of a joke may have amused the person making it, but it was difficult for me to focus on the positives of my situation.

If I really had to think on that, those were still too good for me to complain about. For one, I was alive. I’d somehow survived the mortal wounds that had severed me in half. I raised my eyebrows and sat up in the bath. I hadn’t thought about that. I stood up and stared down at my naked belly with widened eyes. I traced a finger alone the red line present there.

A scar. Proof that I’d been severed. The line wrapped all the way around my side. I’d have to check a mirror later, but from the way it looked at this angle, the scar did, indeed, wrap all the way around my torso. I sank back into the bathwater and clutched my knees to my chest. What an awful realization.

“I really was split in half…” I breathed.

The thought made my stomach turn. Someone…or something…had put me back together in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. I tried not to think about it—the image of my body in two halves on the floor. Surely, Kirito had seen my insides and blood and…I covered my mouth up. If I thought about it anymore, I’d vomit.

“How am I alive right now?” I whimpered.

I shouldn’t worry about that just yet. For now, all that matters is that I am alive. When I found a way to ask about the things that had transpired since that battle, then I could worry about details like that. I quickly finished up my bath by cleaning my hair and then climbed out.

A towel was present in the washroom I’d used. It smelled fresh, as if someone had recently cleaned it. I dried myself, both enjoying the scene and fully perplexed by it. I stared at my dirtied traveling clothes and frowned. I pulled out fresh sleepwear as opposed to the ones I’d stuffed in my bag for travel and slipped it on.

“If no one’s using it, it’s probably okay,” I said.

There was likely no justification to that train of thought, but I slipped into the clean clothes regardless. I opened the door to one of the inn rooms and struggled with the thought that I’d been staying in this bed for free, when it belonged to a face I could recall. That family deserved the payment, but they weren’t here to receive it. I made a mental note to pay them if I found them anywhere.

I pulled back the covers and crawled into the sheets. They were soft and once again, my tired body thanked me for making a risky decision. If I was breaking the Taboo Index, I couldn’t tell. After I’d broken the seal in my eye, that hesitation was gone. Something in the back of my mind reminded me of that codex, but I shoved it further into the corners of my thoughts, reminding myself that it was Administrator who’d set up these rules, not the gods or anyone upright.

The bed welcomed me, allowing my body to sink into it. I rolled onto my side and curled up into them, taking in a new, but similarly fresh scent. I chuckled to myself as I thought about Kirito climbing into such a large, plush bed. His face would be lit up with pleasure, and then he’d sleep with his stomach turned up, likely exposed by his lack of care. I pressed my cheek further into the pillow and sighed.

“Good night, Kirito,” I whispered. “Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll see you again.”

For the first time in weeks, my sleep was restful. I woke up feeling as if I were ready to take on the day. I took advantage of the kitchen’s presence once more to make myself a warm breakfast and quickly ate my fill. I packed up my things, took the liberty of restocking what supplies I could carry, and then patted the threshold of the entrance with a sad smile.

“Thank you for letting me stay,” I said.

I continued down the road without another word. It was still quite early when I set out. The sun rose as I followed the trail north towards Zakkaria. It shouldn’t take much longer to reach it; I was already about halfway there when I’d gone a little way past the inn. A few more days of travel and I’d be able to investigate Zakkaria to see if it had been touched by this mysterious problem as well.

As the sun came up, I listened to the birds and animals making noise around me. Animals all seemed to be fine—well, so far as I could tell. I’d seen birds, insects, and squirrels so far. I’d yet to encounter a horse or other farm animal, nor had I seen any dogs or cats about. I wondered if the same phenomenon that had caused humans to disappear had wiped out all of the larger species along with them. But again, this couldn’t be confirmed without any evidence.

After about three hours of walking, I stopped to relieve myself and, in the process, noticed some rabbits. It was the first time I’d seen any since leaving the Central Cathedral. I pulled some leaves off of a nearby bush and held them out. The rabbits cautiously approached me, twitching their noses, and finally started to take the leaves from my hand to munch on them.

“At least you’ve got friends,” I said. “I’m all alone here.”

I reached out to see if I could touch one of their soft heads, but they tensed up at my movement and then scurried off. I should have expected this and been unbothered, but my chest tightened up and I fought back tears. I was so lonely. I just wanted something else to interact with. Even these rabbits would have been sufficient.

“Please…please come back…” I begged.

Naturally, they didn’t.

My head drooped as I cried. I longed for a distraction from my loneliness. I wrapped my arms around myself, hugging myself as hard as I could. In an effort to release all of my tension, I tossed my head upwards and let out a scream. I screamed and I screamed until my lungs ran out of breath. For a moment, there was silence. The entire forest fell quiet, as if collectively pitying my lonely existence.

And then the sound screamed in my ears back at me.

The sky lit up read, tracing lines across it. They were interconnected as interlocking shapes. A loud, high pitched sound rose and fell as the sky was covered. I stared up at it in horror and covered my ears, hoping to block out the sound. I leapt to my feet and I ran. Zakkaria was still too far away. I needed to get out of here.

“That’s it…” I panted. “That’s what made them all disappear!”

I had no proof of that. But self-preservation kicked into overdrive. I fled the forest, refusing to stop until the red sky and horrid sound vanished. I couldn’t reach my destination soon enough. Tears continued to fall from my eyes as I fled. Would I be joining the missing people of the world? I wasn’t going to stop running to find out sooner.


	4. Insanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's a little short but I think it gets a point across.

He slammed his fist into the console, letting out a cry of distress. Everyone in the room fell silent. They didn’t know what they’d been expecting when he came out of the dive, but this anger certainly hadn’t been it. Kirigaya Kazuto resembled a madman now, as he stood hunched over the console. His body shook like grass quivering in a gentle breeze. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, he fell down to his knees and broke down sobbing.

“Hey, Kirito-kun…”

The voice of the girl who’d come to save him banished the silence. She reached a hand out to console him, but he brushed her off. Shocked, she withdrew her hand and stared at his shaking back. They’d adjusted their memories, Kikuoka had said. But not all of them. What was Kazuto recalling that made him sob so? Asuna glanced over at Doctor Koujirou and frowned.

Kazuto suddenly threw himself at the console, letting out another scream. Something was wrong with him. This wasn’t the boy she remembered. No one in the room knew how to act. Kikuoka nodded at a couple of guards and they rushed forward to grasp Kazuto. He flailed in their arms and screamed.

“Eugeo! Eugeo, I’m coming back! Eugeo!”

A common thought occurred to them in that moment: they’d cut the memories in the wrong place. Whatever Kazuto last remembered, it was causing him great distress. Someone took the liberty of sedating Kazuto. They apologized, in murmurs, to Asuna as they dragged Kazuto’s limp body out of the room. They would do their best to try and help him.

She couldn’t sleep that night. The image of him screaming like a man possessed kept her from falling asleep. Her first thought was to go and check on him. Kazuto was already awake again in another part of the ship, unbeknownst to her. He snuck out of his holding room and into the main computer room. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he thought up solutions to his problem. Asuna first checked his room, and realized he was gone.

He slammed his fist on the console over and over and over again. Each time he tried a new line of code, it failed. It frustrated him to think that he might not have enough knowledge of the computer system to be able to manipulate it on his own. When Asuna finally turned the corner, she watched him quietly. He reached up and grasped his hair, pulling at it.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” he shouted to himself. “The data must be here somewhere! It has to be! It has to be here!”

His words were clear enough for her to hear, but soft enough that it was obvious he knew no one was listening. He paced in front of the machine for a moment, holding his head in his hands, and then came to a stop. He turned to the console and started typing again with such a fury that she feared the keys would come off. His fingers suddenly stopped. He staggered back away from the console.

“There…there you are…” he said, his voice wavering.

Kazuto typed something up, and then gazed up at the screen. Asuna couldn’t see it clearly, but she could see a sword on the screen. It was as blue as ice, with a rose adorning the hilt. It rested on the floor of a giant round chamber. Kazuto dropped his head and typed something else. The sword on the screen started to glow. Tendrils of light reached out from it. The sword began to separate into two things—the sword itself and what looked like a human being.

Breathing heavily, Kazuto once again stepped back from the console. He dropped down to the floor on his knees and hugged himself. His shoulders started to shake. Asuna thought he might be sobbing, but instead of cries, she heard laughter. He was laughing. She finally drew in a breath and walked into the room.

“Kirito…” she whispered.

He turned to her. Tears were streaming down his face. She didn’t understand.

“I’ve done it…” he said, his voice cracking. “He’s alive, Asuna…he’s alive…”

She gave him a curious look.

“Kirito, I know you think he’s a person,” she said, “but you can’t just put him on your computer like you did with Yui. He’s the property of RATH, whoever…”

Her words trailed off. It couldn’t be. She looked at the boy on the screen and tried to think, despite having missing gaps in her memory. A blond boy dressed in blue. A blue sword, as cold as ice and born from a single rose.

“Is that…?”

Kazuto nodded.

“You’ll help me save Eugeo, right?” he asked.

There was a look in his eyes that tugged at her heart. She bit her lip.

“Kirito…RATH won’t let you have him,” she said, trying to be as clear as possible.

He shook his head.

“I know,” he said. “That’s why…”  
He stopped talking and turned to face the console again. He walked over to it and placed his shaking hands on the desk. She swallowed. His whole body was shaking. Something was wrong with Kazuto. Something was incredibly wrong with Kazuto. She’d never seen him like this before. He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.

“That’s why, what?” she asked.

He drew in a breath.

“That’s why we’re going to steal him.”


	5. Watching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's been a hot minute but I'm back with some words~

At what point the noise stopped, I don’t remember. I just know that my tired feet finally hit the limits of Zakkaria and everything was back to normal. I slumped over against a building and gazed at the empty streets, feeling despair gnawing at my throat. I’d hoped a little too hard that whatever occurred in Centoria hadn’t been something that had spread across the entirety of Norlangarth, but here, too, seemed deserted. A tremor came from within my chest.

“No…”

I leapt up to my feet and tore through the city. While it was devastating to know that every human being had vanished, it was another thing to think about specific faces. I ran through the streets, calling on old memories to navigate back to the little farm at the edge of the city. When it came into view I slowed down and felt my stomach drop. Why had I run here, just to see what I didn’t want to accept?

The family who had been so kind to me and Kirito was naturally among those who had vanished. I walked up and placed my hand on the doorpost of the barn where we’d slept for months. I clutched the frame in my hand. There had to be an answer. I didn’t know where to find that answer, but it existed somewhere, in some form. I turned my head back to look at the main house. Once again, I felt guilty and apologized as I entered someone else’s home.

Similarly to the empty home in Centoria and at the little inn I’d stopped at between these two cities, nothing seemed to have been left in a rush. Everything was in its proper place. A few things had been changed from when Kirito and I had stayed here, but that was to be expected, I supposed. We hadn’t been in Zakkaria since we’d started training at the Swordcraft Academy. It only made sense that things might be rearranged, or a new piece of furniture might be present.

Nothing stood out as strikingly different, though. The house was clean, dishes were neatly put away, and dry food was store safely, and once again oddly unspoiled, in its proper cabinet. I mumbled a bit of thanks to the family for their food and took a piece of bread. That would spoil the fastest. I chewed on the bread as I walked around the house, hoping for something out of place.

On a desk, there was a small booklet of parchment paper. It had to cost a fortune. I wondered how a family with such a little income managed to get their hands on one. They must have saved up a lot just to purchase it. I picked it up and opened the booklet, curious what they’d spent so much shear on to use this for. The words inside made my heart skip a beat.

“What…happened in the Human Empire…?”

The first entry was dated several weeks after our arrest.

“Integrity Knights came from Centoria to address the people of Zakkaria,” I read. “The Pontifex of the Axiom Church was killed at the hands of a rebel. Now, we are on the brink of war with the Dark Territory and they ask as many of us as are willing to take up arms in Eastabarieth…”

I felt my heart start to race. I flipped the page. It was about a week later.

“I am not sure that I want Wolde to join the battle, but he seems insistent. He has no skill with a sword and has never practiced sword forms before. I think he was encouraged to take up arms once the Integrity Knights shared the name of the Pontifex’s assassin. Does he feel responsible for Kirito’s actions? We only housed those boys for a short time before they moved into the garrison barracks. I wonder where the other boy might be.”

I swallowed. This was all so unsettling. A war? Recruitment? I suppose that was what Kirito had suggested, but something seemed off. Why would the Integrity Knights just side with the man who’d killed their leader? Had Alice vouched for him and won instead of being fought as a traitor? I couldn’t completely write that out as a possibility.

“Eastabarieth…” I mumbled.

Was that where everyone was?

I shook my head. No, women and children who weren’t in the battle wouldn’t go to the scene of the battle. That didn’t make any sense. It still followed more logic that people vanished suddenly. There were no signs of panic or leaving in a rush. If the war was taking place in Eastabarieth, then a quick evacuation of Zakkaria wouldn’t make so much sense. No signs of war had reached either Centoria or this city, meaning that there should have still been people here.

“Unless I’m missing something…”

Picking up the booklet, I flipped through more pages, trying to find any sort of clue as to what happened here. There were notes about Wolde agreeing to stay in Zakkaria, mentions of dragons flying overhead, a date when the garrison’s men left for the war. Nothing came close to mentioning fleeing or leaving the city. I dropped the booklet back down onto the desk and sighed. This was getting nowhere.

“Then again…the pontifex’s plan…”

She’d wanted to turn about half of the people of the Human Empire into weapons to fight in the war. It was a horrible thought, but what if the other Integrity Knights upheld that plan? That would make a lot of sense of why everyone was missing without a trace. It still wouldn’t explain why items like food seemed to be trapped at full Life, but it could solve half of the puzzle. I curled my hands up into fists and drew in a deep breath.

If nothing else, there were answers in Eastabarieth. I hoped that I wasn’t walking out onto a battlefield, but it was better to end up there than to run myself in circles here looking for answers that I wasn’t going to find. I headed back out of the house after replenishing my rations and headed in the direction of a place I knew I could find some maps of the entire Human Empire—the barracks.

The place that Kirito and I had called home for a short amount of time before moving on to Centoria didn’t give off the friendly feeling of nostalgia that the farm had. It felt cold and deserted, but the mess here was evident. These people had left in a hurry before the vanishing act of the citizens of Zakkaria, and the evidence of that was spilled all over the floor.

Things were overturned and scattered about, some of which might have been important and others of which were possibly just sentimental pieces they were taking with them to be reminded of their loved ones on the battlefield. I stepped around the things on the floor and headed into the main office attacked to the barracks. Inside, the captain of the guard’s personal items sat, untouched for the most part.

“Please…please have a map,” I said.

I had to dig through a few different drawers before I finally pulled out an old, falling-apart map of the Human Empire. It had enough visible detail on it that I felt I could confidently navigate over to Eastabarieth with it. There were several places where merchants were allowed to pass through. If I explained my situation, perhaps they would let me pass into Eastabarieth without a problem.

_Unless the problem has spread across the border_, I thought.

It made me shudder. I didn’t want to think about the problem branching into the other three quarters of the empire. It was bad enough that everyone but myself was left inside of Norlangarth—if I was the only person left in the world, it would probably change my perspective on the situation. I rolled up the map and slipped it into my bag for reference later. For now, I had to head east.

“If only I had a horse…” I sighed.

A steed would make things go a lot faster than me walking around on foot everywhere, but I didn’t expect to see one. The only animal I’d seen in weeks was the one rabbit I’d come across. I stared forlornly at the stables and shook my head. I’d have to walk on foot whether I liked it or not. Nothing was going to change that.

I turned around to leave and ran into something that was both soft and solid. The object reared up at me. I screamed and threw myself backwards, falling into the dirt. A horse had appeared from seemingly nowhere, braying as it kicked its legs in the air. I blinked up at it and looked around. This horse hadn’t been here just a moment ago.

“Where did you come from?”

It dropped its feet back to the ground and approached me, lowering its head to nudge me with its nose. I laughed. Its breath tickled. I petted its snout and smiled at it.

“You were lonely, too, weren’t you?” I said.

The horse flicked its ears in response and snorted. I reached into my bag and pulled out a carrot, offering it to the horse. With a small whinny, the horse snatched up the carrot and munched on it happily.

“Would you take me to where the war happened?” I asked.

It was a silly thing to ask a horse, who didn’t speak. But I think I was so lonely that it didn’t matter. It was someone to talk to. I got back up to my feet. The horse knelt down and waited, as if it knew I wanted a ride. I dipped my head in thanks and climbed up onto its back.

“Now…how do I steer this thing…” I mumbled.

That’s when I saw it. The strange glowing that suddenly became a saddle beneath me and reins in my hands. I stared at the items curiously for a moment, and then cautiously turned my eyes to the sky.

“It’s almost like…someone’s watching…”

But that couldn’t be right. Could it?


	6. Full Gallop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here is Eugeo. He is all alone. Poor Eugeo.

Four great walls separated the Human Empire into four separate states: Norlangarth Empire, Eastabarieth Empire, Wesdarath Empire, and Southacroith Empire. These four states did not permit citizens other than merchants or church clergy to cross into another area of the empire, no matter the reasoning. As I rode, I wondered what my cover story would have to be to gain me access to Eastabarieth. I was heading for somewhere as close to the End Mountains as possible, since the war must be taking place at a place where the denizens of the Dark Territory could breach.

But when I arrived at the gate, my heart came to a halting stop. The gate itself was shut tight. No one appeared to be standing watch in case a merchant came through. Had the people of Norlangarth been missing for so long that the people of Eastabarieth had abandoned the gate. I hurried over to the gate and tried to squeeze myself through, but it was to no avail. I sighed and rested my head up against the bars. Without the Blue Rose Sword, I couldn’t just easily get through the gate. Then again.

I stepped back and held up my hand.

“System Call. Generate Thermal Element. Discharge.”

I fired off several arts in the direction of the gate. It wasn’t nearly as strong as something like the senator had pulled off during the battle in the pontifex’s chambers. I pulled my arm back to fire off another round of thermal elements, but the horse started to make a fuss behind me. I turned my head back to look at it and saw it cantering in a westerly direction along the wall.

“H-hey!” I exclaimed. “Are you leaving me?”

The horse stopped in its tracks and shook its mane, as if it were waiting for me. It seemed crazy to think that the horse was directing me to go somewhere. There was no one here to see me, though, so I sighed and glanced back at the partially melted gate. This would take a while if I sat at it. The worst that could happen was that the horse could lead me to another dead end. I sighed, but I dashed over and hopped back up on its back.

“Alright,” I said. “Lead on.”

With a cheerful-sounding whinny, the horse charged forward into a gallop and sped west along the wall. I clung to the reins, worried that I might be tossed off if I wasn’t paying attention. To any onlookers, I wondered if it was evident who was in control of our course. It wouldn’t matter, I supposed. There were no onlookers to begin with. I don’t know if I’d expected guards along the wall, but with everyone blindly following the Taboo Index, there would be no need for such a thing.

My steed brought me into Centoria again, which was a long and grueling ride, but much faster than when I’d left the capital city weeks ago. It almost seemed too fast, as if I hadn’t been all that far away from it to begin with. Had the horse been guiding me closer and closer to the capital all this time? It brought me over to the Central Cathedral and knelt down for me to dismount. I frowned up at the building.

“Why would you bring me here?” I mumbled.

The horse lifted its head in the direction of the wall separating Norlangarth and Eastabarieth. I frowned and stared up at the wall. Then I turned and looked back at the cathedral towering in front of us. My eyes widened with realization. This wasn’t just about the cathedral itself. It was about what could be done inside of the great building.

“The only building in the world that touches all four empires,” I said. “You’re brilliant!”

I gave the horse one last carrot and petted its nose. It pressed its face up against mine and gently nibbled at my bangs. I laughed and rubbed my cheek against its muzzle. I smiled to my companion for a short time.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry to leave you here.”

I gave it one last pet and then climbed the stairs into the cathedral. When I turned back around, the horse was nowhere to be seen. I blinked at the space, baffled by the creature. It hadn’t made a single sound with its hooves on the cobblestone as it departed. It was as if the horse had simply vanished into thin air.

_Just like all of the people_, I thought.

My shoulders shuddered. I didn’t want to think about that. I stepped into the cathedral and looked around. The first floor, which I’d briefly run through when exiting the cathedral weeks ago, was just an empty space that opened out into four doors. The door I’d just come through was the Norlangarth door, so the door to my left must lead to Eastabarieth. I swallowed and hurried in that direction, eager to step out into a busy plaza. I rushed at the door, placed my hands on it to swing it outwards, and then burst forth into the eastern empire.

To my dismay, my eyes rested on an empty city once more. I turned and kicked the door with all of my might. I ran over to check both the doors to Wesdarath and Southacroith, but all four sections of Centoria were completely empty. I crumpled down into a miserable heap on the floor and let out a wail. Nothing was making sense. Where could hundreds of thousands of humans have gone? Even if the Dark Territory had invaded, something would be here. I would have been delighted to even see goblins if it meant that I came in contact with another life form that could speak to me.

“I don’t understand…” I cried.

I was no closer to the truth here than I had been before. I was only a thousand times lonelier, realizing that I might at last be the only human being left in the world. I drew in a breath and tried to push myself up off of the floor. Sulking didn’t do anything for me. There had to be an answer. I couldn’t just give in like this. It wasn’t what Kirito would do.

I felt my left hand give. I gasped and saw that my hand was pressing down on one of the bricks in the floor. I yanked my hand back up and saw the brick rise back up to be level with the rest of the floor again. In the center of the room, a platform rose out of the floor. It was long and flat. I picked myself up and walked over to it. My heart caught in my chest when I saw what was resting on the platform.

“Ki…Kirito…”

Seemingly of its own accord, my left hand stretched out to touch the hilt of the Night Sky Blade. It rested between two other swords—on the left, a sword I didn’t recognize; on the right, my own Blue Rose Sword. Something was inscribed below their tips. I walked around the platform and tilted my head to read it.

“Here rests the swords of Star King, Star Queen, and the hero…Eugeo…”

I blinked at the words and traced them with my index finger.

“Star…Queen?”

Now, I was afraid, I had more questions than I did answers.


	7. The Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am so fucking sorry.

Asuna watched as her boyfriend’s fingers flew across the keyboard. He looked frustrated—extremely frustrated. He had the same look on his face that he’d had back when he’d tried to outsmart the Cardinal System back in SAO to save Yui’s data. The only difference was that then, he was doing something for her. Now, he was clearly working desperately for himself. What troubled her the most about this was that at some point within his time in the Underworld, Kirito had changed. He wasn’t the boy she remembered. His heart was set on someone else now.

She didn’t want to admit that. Deep down, she wanted to ignore this madness possessing him right now and pretend that he was hers and hers alone. But the truth was right here in front of her. He so desperately wanted his Eugeo. The apparent stress plastered on his face told her that whatever she’d forgotten that he hadn’t was ending their time as a couple. There was nothing she could do to save him from himself now.

“Come on, Eugeo. Work with me. Work with me, buddy.”

How long had he been muttering like that? Hours. He’d explained it to her in the simplest terms that he could. He had taken what was left of Eugeo’s data saved in his sword—the Blue Rose Sword—and reconstructed Eugeo using his own memory of the boy and that leftover data residing in his sword. Then, he took that data and placed it in an isolated environment away from the rapidly progressing existing Underworld. His goal was to coax Eugeo over to the World’s End Altar and use his external influence to talk Eugeo through extracting his data and sending it to this room.

She glanced over at the spot where an extracted Lightcube would appear. This was familiar to her. It was the same procedure that she’d had to go through to get Alice. Only this time, neither she nor Kirito was diving into the system. Because of their dangerous dive, they weren’t going to easily be allowed to use the Soul Translators again.

“What’s happened now?” she asked.

Did she really want to know? Not particularly. But it kept the room less awkward if he actually spoke to her every once and a while. He blinked up from the screen and turned to face Asuna. His face looked even more tired than before, now that the shadows of the dark room were splashing against his face. It was illuminated from the other side by the light of the console screen, giving him an eerie look.

“He’s turning tail back to Centoria,” he grumbled. “I was just about to open the gate for him. It’s pretty difficult. He sure is impatient.”

Asuna reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Kirito, Eugeo doesn’t know he’s inside of a simulation,” she said. “He probably doesn’t know that you’re trying to help him out. Is there no way to talk to him and explain things?”

Kirito shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I have the fuzziest feeling there’s a way to do that without diving, but I’d prefer to just dive in and guide him there myself. It can’t be that difficult. I’m looking at the terrain. Without anyone else in the simulation, it should just be a bit of a hike.”

Asuna clutched his shirt in her hand.

“You cannot dive back in there,” she told him firmly. “The Soul Translator has already put us through enough.”

An even more painful look seemed to form on Kirito’s face now—one that spoke to his carelessness. This madness didn’t seem like him at all. Whatever this boy meant to him, it was possessing him. She’d never seen his eyes this dark and hopeless. They wandered over to the door that led to where the Soul Translators were stored. Asuna bit her lip. She could feel his longing seeping out of his pores.

Maybe she had known something like this would happen eventually. Kirito consistently staggered back to the one thing that had given him trauma in the first place. No matter what anyone said to him or did, he walked right into situations that screamed danger. She’d tried her best to remain by his side but watching him now broke her heart. He’d fallen for an AI. For a human that wasn’t fully human. And while she supported and believed that these artificial Fluctlights were human, she couldn’t help but think Kirito thought something oddly different about them.

Here he was, trying to recompile Eugeo’s data. When a real human died, this was impossible, of course. Resurrection was a fairy tale made up by religious people and writers alike. It was a miracle that people liked to dream about when they missed their loved ones and honored leaders. But human beings did not come back from the dead. Kirito was trying to resurrect someone he saw as one-hundred percent human. This action alone would make Eugeo less human.

“It would be much easier to talk to him and convince him, though,” Kirito said, his voice barely audible. “He would follow me. I know he would. Eugeo would follow me to the edge of the world.”

Asuna furrowed her brow. That didn’t sound healthy.

“Please, Kirito,” she said. “Get some rest. We can work at it again tomorrow.”

Kirito shook his head rather violently, brushing her hand off of his shoulder at last.

“No!” he exclaimed. “No, Eugeo will be alone for that much longer! I can’t just leave him in there alone, Asuna! He’s got no one to talk to! No one! He’s completely and utterly alone!”

She frowned.

“Kirito, it’s just one night!” she cried.

He shook his head again.

“For Eugeo, it’s likely been weeks!” he cried. “If you want to go ahead and go to sleep, fine. But I’m not leaving him alone. He’s likely terrified as it is.”

Kirito stood up and staggered over towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Asuna demanded.

He jerked his head in her direction. Those eyes. Those were not Kirito’s eyes. The man she loved was gone, taken over by some unhealthy, uncomfortable emotion. She took a cautious step backwards.

“I’m going to dive in and go get him,” he said.

She choked on her own tears.

“What’s gotten into you?” she said, trying to hold in a sob. “Kirito, please. This isn’t you. Come back and rest and we can rethink this. We’ll still save Eugeo. We just need you at your best to do that. You’re not yourself right now. You’re scaring me.”

His expression softened just a little bit.

“If you won’t rest, at least talk to me,” she pleaded.

Cautiously, she reached over and grasped his hand.

“Just don’t get back in that machine.”

His eyes narrowed. Her heart pounded. This was it. The final decision. She was making him choose between herself and Eugeo in this moment. It was selfish, but she had to. She’d lose him otherwise. She waited patiently for his answer. She prepared herself for whatever it might be. Selfish hope told her he’d nod his head and agree to come lay down in her arms.

Kirito’s lips moved.

His answer given.

Asuna exhaled.


	8. Footsteps on Cobblestone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, this was NOT originally supposed to happen but I had a ~bad~ (good?) idea to just...stir up more nonsense so I am apologizing to both Oakentide who will be like w h a t and anyone else who is just like AJ WHAT HAVE YOU DONE-

Three names. One was mine. The other two were more like titles, but based on the fact that the Night Sky Blade was sitting here, on this display, I knew that Star King was a pseudonym for Kirito. This other name, though—Star Queen. Who was she? The implication of the name made my heart tremble. How much time had passed? Was this person Kirito’s wife?

I shook my head. If Kirito had a wife, it had to have been a significant amount of time. I didn’t want to think about such a gap. But he’d had no one that was special to him during our time at the academy. I couldn’t see this Star Queen being someone like Ronye or Tiese…or even Sortiliena. I knew him well enough; none of those girls meant anything in his eyes. I suppose it was possible he bonded with one of them after the battle in the cathedral, but—

My train of thought stopped. Of course. Those memories I’d had. The ones that Administrator had turned around in my head. If that battle had made things clear for me, then there was one other person whose thoughts were made clearer by that fight. One other person grew up, without remembering it, beside Kirito until she was taken away from us nine years before the battle against the pontifex.

“Alice…” I murmured.

But even then, this wasn’t Alice’s sword, either. I’d fought against Alice in this very cathedral, and the sword she’d wielded then had been a golden one called the Osmanthus Blade. This blade looked nothing like that elegant sword, though it had its own form of elegance, if I took a moment to observe it. I ran my fingers over the sheath, wanting to take it out for a glance, telling myself it was simply out of curiosity. Drawing in a breath, I stopped and glanced over at my own sword.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Was it an apology for looking at the other sword or was it an apology for what I was about to do? I wasn’t so sure myself. I removed my fingers from the sheath of Star Queen’s sword and reached over to grasp my own sword. It felt much lighter than when I last lifted it. Frowning, I grabbed the hilt and slid the blade out of the sheath. The blade only came out part of the way; I felt my stomach drop as I remembered, all too clearly now, that the sword had been broken and was no longer a full blade.

The sword and sheath slipped out of my hands and clattered against the marble floor, immediately filling the silent hall with an unpleasant din. I pressed my hands to my midsection and felt my stomach turn a flip. How easily had I put those thoughts out of my head? I’d been wandering around fine for so many days that it almost seemed as if none of that had ever happened.

“Did it happen?” I wondered aloud.

There was a scar present where I’d been split apart, yes. I had memories of my death, and I had memories of everything before it. But this empty world, having only shown me myself and a few animals, could not possibly be the world I remembered. Thus, was there any reason to think that I’d lived in a separate world at all? I grasped my hair and drew in a breath.

None of this made sense.

“Kirito…”

I stared back over at his sword, sitting still on the pedestal. I reached out my hand and picked it up by the sheath. This sword, unlike mine, still maintained its full weight. If I wasn’t real, then my memories of this blade probably weren’t, either. I hooked the sheath at my hip, stared down at the broken Blue Rose sword, and winced as I clutched my stomach.

“These memories are too real to be fabricated,” I told myself.

With that verbalized, to no one in particular, I nodded my head and headed out of the eastern side of the cathedral, stepping foot in an empire I’d never dreamed I would ever see. I turned my eyes directly east. My destination was that war zone, no matter what. I couldn’t stand around here and sight-see. A small part of me longed to search the homes for a sign of life, but I knew better at this point. The Human Empire was long-dead. However long I’d been gone, it was enough for this place to be deserted.

My feet took me through East Centoria, weaving through streets that weren’t set up the same way as North Centoria. I didn’t need to know how to navigate them, though; I just needed to exit the city to continue my journey east. I focused my attention in that direction, refusing to waver for anything. But then, as I passed streets very close to the entry gate to the city, I heard a rock skitter across the cobblestone to my right. I whirled around and put my hand to the hilt.

The street looked empty. I mean, what had I expected. The rock had likely hit my shoe and danced across the pathway. I relaxed my stance and turned back east, and then jumped as my eyes rested on something I hadn’t seen there before. I yelped, leapt back, and then hovered my hand over the hilt of Kirito’s sword, unsure if I should grasp it or not. I blinked a few times. I must have been hallucinating. This world was completely empty.

Yet standing before me, there was a younger boy, somewhere in his teens, with dark hair and brown eyes. His clothing was glaringly red and white, consisting of form-fitting red pants, shoes very similar to my own shoes from the Swordcraft Academy uniform, and a white top with red detailing on the seams. His hands were covered in white, fingerless gloves. A long, red jacket that fell to his ankles covered his back and arms; the collar was flipped up around his neck to stand on end. There was something like a harness around his chest that strapped his sheath not to his hip, as was normal, but rather on his back. His left arm reached for the sword on his back. His right hand pointed to the sword at my hip.

“That…isn’t yours.”

I swallowed. He must have been a guardian of that display in the cathedral. I wrapped my fingers around the hilt, ready to pull it out if I needed to. The boy frowned at me, and then he smirked. I furrowed my brow and nodded at the city gate behind him.

“Kirito won’t mind,” I said. “I need to leave the city. I’ll return it after I’m done.”

The boy sucked his teeth.

“I knew something strange was happening,” he said. “An isolated pocket of space appeared suddenly, and the three sacred swords vanished. I presumed I’d find them inside if I entered this space pocket, but it seems as if I’ve found something else much more interesting.”

His words didn’t make sense. I sort of followed that there was a world completely isolated from others—that was the empty place I was wandering around in now. He was indicating that he’d come from outside of this world, somehow. He lowered his hand and walked over to me. I tensed up a little bit as he looked up at me, studying my face.

“You’re pretty ballsy, being on a first-name basis with him,” he said.

The boy’s word choice, too, was a bit weird. I frowned and looked down at the sword on my hip.

“Kirito is my partner,” I said. “I don’t…I don’t know what happened while I was gone, but I need to find him. You seem familiar with him. Do you know where he is?”

Once again, the boy sucked his teeth.

“As if,” he muttered. “I have a general idea, presuming the old fart’s still alive.”

His word choice was getting borderline rude.

“Exactly how much time has passed that makes you use such crude terminology?” I asked. “He’s a little younger than I am.”

The boy laughed.

“How long have you been stuck here, man?” he asked. “Then again, you don’t strike me as familiar. How are you his partner? Are you some kind of secret guard or something? Ohh, that might be it. You followed me in to come and tell me to get the hell out. I get it, I get it. Message received. I’ll quit meddling.”

I shook my head.

“No, what? Wait!” I said.

The boy gave me a funny look. I put my hand to my chest.

“My name is Eugeo,” I said. “I don’t know anything about a secret guard or who you are or what’s happened since the battle in the cathedral—”

Suddenly, the boy’s face went pale. I straightened up.

“Is…is something wrong?” I asked.

He blinked at me a few times.

“Eu…geo?” he said. “You said your name was…Eugeo?”

I nodded.

“That’s right,” I said. “And I’m looking for—”

He cut me off without a second thought.

“You’re dead,” he said, pointing a finger at me. “Or rather, you _did_ die! I remember my dad telling me the stories as a kid of Eugeo, the hero who fought alongside Star King and the hero Alice to defeat the evil pontifex of the old Axiom Church! There’s no way in hell you’re alive, he said you were bisected!”

Once again, I found myself clutching my belly.

“I…I was, yes,” I stammered. “I don’t know how I came back or why I just…I just need to find Kirito…and figure out why I’m not dead…”

The boy clapped one hand on my arm. He was suddenly grinning with excitement.

“You know what this means?” he said.

I tilted my head.

“What does this mean?” I said, caving to his whims.

He glanced up over his shoulder.

“My father’s alive,” he said.

I hummed.

“What does me being alive have to do with your father being alive?” I grumbled.

The boy patted my arm, chuckling and took a step back.

“Well, I don’t suppose you would know about that, seeing as you died back then,” he said. “My father’s something of a genius. Invented all sorts of things with my mother. Brilliant man, bit of a cocky guy, though. Supposedly, he and my mother died very recently. But something in me told me they survived. I mean, they told me what was going on and everything, and told me not to worry. But seeing you here means that my father is one-hundred percent alive out there.”

I scratched the back of my head. The dots just weren’t connecting.

“Whatever you say…what’s your name?” I asked.

He turned back to me and pointed to himself.

“This’ll be awkward but, the name’s Yuuji,” he said.

I tensed up.

_Wait a minute…no way._

“You’re my namesake,” he said.

_No way._

My heart started racing in my chest.

“Who…who are you?” I asked, feeling a bit weak to my knees.

He walked back over and grasped me by the arms.

“It’s okay, Eugeo,” he said. “Hmm, just consider me like your nephew of sorts, I guess. Star King and Star Queen are my parents. And if you haven’t made that connection yet, Star King—”

I felt my knees give out.

“Kirito’s…son…” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A bit of a disclaimer here. I cannot for the LIFE of me remember whether or not Eugeo's sword was restored or still in two pieces after the war. It might be in the part of Moon Cradle that I have...summarized but not actually thoroughly read. SO. For the purposes of this story if I am wrong jut bear with me, it felt best to have the sword be broken still.


	9. The Star Prince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm just in a Yuuji mood for some reason and I'm like. O_O What if...way too much. For anyone that doesn't know, Yuuji is a concept from the web version of SAO that kinda got scrapped when it was published. I'm kinda hoping Reki still considers Yuuji canon because MAN would that be weird to run into him in Unital Ring but GOD that is totally my level of what the hell XD

The boy had to be in his late teens or early twenties. I didn’t want to believe that so much time had passed, and yet the proof was right in front of me. This boy was Kirito’s son, and Kirito had named him Yuuji after me. The information was almost as overwhelming as finding out that Kirito wasn’t from this world. I stopped staring off at some point when Yuuji took me by the shoulders and shook me back and forth.

“Look, man, I know,” he said. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but I’m looking at a dead guy here, not you. You with me, Uncle Eugeo?”

I blinked and shook my head.

“Uncle?” I repeated.

He laughed.

“Well, what do you want me to call you?” he asked. “Just Eugeo?”

Yuuji didn’t realize that it was a very complicated question he was asking. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted a child of Kirito’s to call me—I’d never gotten to a point where that needed to be a discussion. What would Kirito want? What would I want? This was just a bit too sudden.

“U-Uncle’s fine,” I stammered, unsure of what else to say. “I’m sorry, I’m just…I didn’t even know that Kirito was…dating someone…”

He laughed again.

“Ahh, I bet that’s pretty complicated, too,” Yuuji said. “From what he’s told me, I think dad only revealed that he wasn’t from this world to you very shortly before your death, so there’s unfortunately quite a bit about him that you don’t know. Another person from his world came to our world during the great War of the Underworld. They knew each other beforehand and there was some shit about them being stuck here for like two hundred years…anyways, they were engaged or something over in their world and when they got stuck here—”

I waved my hands in front of my face.

“Go back, go back,” I said. “So, there _was_ a big war?”

Yuuji nodded.

“Some people from my old man’s world came to steal a girl named Alice,” he said. “My parents were on the side trying to help her get out of this world to the safe people in their world so that the bad ones didn’t steal her.”

I placed one hand against my forehead and groaned. There was a lot going on. So many things had happened since I’d been gone. Here I’d been searching for answers, and I had more questions now than ever. I sighed, picked myself up off of the ground, and dusted myself off. I glanced over at the boy.

Now that I was looking at him—really looking at him—I could see it. His face wasn’t identical to Kirito’s, of course, but he did strongly favor his father. And whoever had mothered this kid couldn’t have been Alice, I concluded, because those were neither Kirito’s nor Alice’s eyes. I reached out and cupped the boy’s face in my hands. He gave me a funny look.

“Are you gonna be okay?” he asked.

What a question that was. I found myself inexplicably laughing as an unspeakable pain filled my chest. I’d missed so much of Kirito’s life. I’d left him alone and thought I’d been at peace with that as I died beside him. Now, as I gazed at his son’s face, I regretted thinking that way at all. I drew in a deep breath, nodded, and then dropped my hands.

“My goal is to find your father,” I said. “If your goal is to return his sword to its resting place, then I’m going to ask that you wait until I find him.”

Yuuji huffed and placed his hands on his hips.

“No way am I going back to Centoria,” he said. “I’ve waited long enough for my dad to get back. I’m coming with you to give that old fart a piece of my mind for leaving me in here without them.”

I smiled and nodded.

“In any case, I’m glad to have a traveling companion, Star Prince,” I teased.

His eyebrows furrowed.

“Don’t call me embarrassing things,” he whined. “Though, now I can see how you and my father were good friends.”

I laughed.

“Well, which way would you suggest to go?” I asked. “I thought that I’d find answers heading east toward where the war occurred.”

Yuuji raised an eyebrow at me.

“You figured all that out without even knowing about a war?” he said. “Impressive. Yeah, the World’s End Altar is a place where you can eject Lightcubes, my father said. He also said at one point you could exit the dive that way, but then he explained the difference between he and I in that regard. My father was placed in a machine and his soul was sent here to live with us. Meanwhile we were created in here and live in here.”

I didn’t exactly follow, but I had learned towards the end of my life that Kirito wasn’t from this world. A god, a human—whatever he was, he wasn’t like me. In the moment when I’d learned that, I’d quickly concluded that there was a reason he hadn’t told me. This might have been the reason. All of this information was very difficult to understand.

What was even more difficult to swallow was that as people whose real bodies weren’t in this world, Kirito and the person from his world that he’d married in order to create Yuuji were still somehow able to create him in the first place. Unlike his parents, he was born in this world and was the same as myself in that regard.

Yuuji smiled at me for a second and then headed out of the gate. I followed along after him. He glanced around the road and the trees and plants around it, whistling as he walked. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and then he waved his hand around at everything. I glanced after his gesture, blinking.

“It’s so _open_,” he said. “Man, this place is weird.”

I hummed.

“So, I’m guessing two hundred years made quite the difference,” I said, trying to find something to talk about.

Yuuji chuckled and nodded.

“You could say that,” he said. “The Central Cathedral never changes. I think that’s why I don’t feel so disoriented when I look back at it. Home still looks like home, even in this slice of time frozen from the past.”

I glanced up over my shoulder at the cathedral. It was hard to imagine things staying consistent for that long, but the smile on his face was certain—this building hadn’t changed in the slightest.

“Wait, home?” I asked.

He nodded.

“One might say I was conceived, born, and raised in that cathedral,” he said.

I made a face, not wanting to think about Kirito under the bedsheets with some woman I couldn’t imagine. For some reason, it felt like it stung. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the mental image.

“Someone looks weirdly jealous,” Yuuji noted. “But I can’t tell what you’re jealous of. Being raised in Centoria?”

Swallowing, I shook my head.

“I’m not jealous of anything,” I said.

He gave me a funny look.

“Riiiight,” he said. “So, we should probably hit the next town by sundown if we keep a decent pace. I’m not sure exactly what to do when we get to the World’s End Altar, but I’m fairly certain that between the two of us, we’ll figure out how to reach out to my father.”

I nodded.

“I’ll follow your lead, then,” I said.

He gave me a funny look.

“But this map is based on your time period,” he said. “Shouldn’t I be the one following you?”

I shook my head.

“You seem more familiar with Eastabarieth than I am,” I said. “When I was alive, only merchants and Integrity Knights were allowed to cross the border walls.”

He glanced up at the walls running out from Centoria on both sides of the eastern quarter. His mouth dropped open into an ‘o’ of surprise.

“So, that’s what those are for,” he mumbled. “I was wondering why the giant walls.”

I sighed. There was a lot for both of us to learn, it seemed.

“Lead on, then,” I said. “I’d like to reach that town before nightfall, wouldn’t you?”

He nodded.

“Roger that,” he said.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and blazed on ahead. I followed after him, still feeling that sharpness in my chest as I gazed at his back. Yuuji had said I’d looked jealous about something. I frowned and bit my lip as I thought about it. The more I focused on the fact that the boy I was following was Kirito’s son, the more that feeling felt sharper and hotter.

Was he right?

Was I…jealous?


End file.
